As the sweet, upbeat music of Culture Club filled the air, patrons kicked off their shoes, raised their drinks high in the air and danced in the sand as the sun set into the Pacific Ocean during the inaugural 93.1 Jack FM Presents: Richard Blade’s ’80s Beach Bash SeaLegs Live in Huntington Beach last month.

Blade, grinning from ear to ear, let the music play and took a break from his turntables, hopping off stage to take some posed photos and selfies with patrons at the sold-out venue. He also gave out prizes and took song requests, dedicating specific tracks to a fan’s birthday or a couple’s engagement or anniversary. If there was a bit of a lull after a song, he’d pick the energy back up, coaxing the crowd – most of whom were clad in their most fabulous ‘80s garb – back out to dance with a cut like Def Leppard’s ’87 hit, “Pour Some Sugar on Me.”

“I honestly just want people to have a good time,” the 61-year-old English DJ and radio personality said during the event, which will return to the new venue on Bolsa Chica State Beach on Sunday, Aug. 27 and Sunday, Sept. 24.

Though he carries everything from Frank Sinatra’s “The Way You Look Tonight” to the latest from Skrillex, Diplo, Taylor Swift and Katy Perry in his arsenal, Blade said that the music from the ‘80s remains tried and true. The secret to a fun set, he said, is to allow an ebb and flow on the dance floor.

“People need a break to go get a drink, move their car, go to the bathroom, share their social status or whatever it is,” he said. “So you can throw on a mid-tempo song like Madonna’s ‘La Isla Bonita,’ where it’s one people like, but it’s not instant dancing. Of course there are songs you can keep in your back pocket so to speak, the ones you know will make everyone dance.”

“All of those songs are dance floor magnets,” he said with a grin. “You put those on and people will be talking at the bar and you’ll see them turn their heads and they’re coming for the dance floor.”

Blade got his start as a DJ while attending college in Oxford, England. From there he traveled to a variety of clubs in the U.K. and across Europe until he landed a gig as an evening rock show host at a radio station in Austria.

“Getting into radio was one of my dreams as a kid because when I grew up in England there was so little radio because the government controlled it,” he said. “There was Pirate Radio and then the government crumbled and radio started. I’d listen and I was fascinated by it. The DJs were as big of rockstars as the bands they were playing. I thought it would be great because I wasn’t a musician and that it would be an awesome way to meet girls.”

Blade really wanted to be a radio DJ in Los Angeles, but was told he’d never be hired because of his English accent. He moved to Southern California after landing a job at a radio station in Bakersfield, where he worked for exactly one year and then left for a morning co-host gig at a station in San Luis Obispo. Eventually he was hired at KNAC 105.5/FM in Long Beach and by June 1982, he finally achieved his ultimate goal and became a morning show co-host at KROQ 106.7/FM in Los Angeles.

“The moment I opened on the microphone at KROQ, I knew how important that was going to be,” he said. “I could feel the buzz. The station at the time had been struggling for an identity, but it had all this talent in place with Jed the Fish, Freddy Snakeskin, Dusty Street, Rodney on the ROQ and Rich Carroll, the greatest programmer in the world. By pure luck I just fit in so well because there was so much English music happening at the time and I was an English guy. It all just worked and I felt like the final piece of the puzzle. I wasn’t the puzzle, I was just a piece of it and bam, it all came together and it was successful and a lot of fun.”

Blade said he was stunned when KROQ recently made the decision to cut ties with Rodney Bingenheimer, whom he refereed to as “a true legend,” earlier this year. Blade said he called Bingenheimer after hearing the news, and was instrumental in getting the ball rolling on Bingenheimer’s next endeavor, a weekly music show on SiriusXM’s Little Steven’s Underground Garage Ch. 22.

“KROQ doesn’t make mistakes,” Blade said. “But that was a mistake.”

Back in the ’80s and ’90s, Blade got to rub elbows with and interview some of the biggest artists of the day, including Culture Club’s Boy George, who he said is “one of the funniest guys you can sit down and talk with.” Though Morrissey is a notoriously tough interview and a legendarily picky and particular dude, Blade said his time with the Smiths frontman was always “fantastic.”

“You have to be careful with Morrissey because he is temperamental and you can’t go in unprepared or he will rip you apart,” he said. “It’s just because he’s a smart guy and if you don’t show him that respect, he knows it.”

Of course, Blade has never made it a secret that Depeche Mode is his favorite band of all time and he’d always jump at the chance to chat with Dave Gahan & Co.

“That’s my band and I love those guys,” he said. In 1993, while Depeche Mode was out touring in support of its eighth studio album, “Songs of Faith and Devotion,” they had asked Blade to fly out for opening night in Florida. He was able to catch the last flight out of LAX, land in Miami and make it to the hotel by 3 a.m. for the first day of the tour.

“When I went to check-in, Alan (Wilder) and Dave (Gahan) were waiting for me,” he said. “We ended up in the hotel Jacuzzi drinking beers at 3:30 a.m. I was like ‘Oh my God, they waited up for me.’ But really they were probably up partying anyway. They are a great band and really great guys to be around. I’ve always said that you could take Dave Gahan out of Depeche Mode and he could front any band in the world because he’s one of the best frontmen there is. You could put him in front of Judas Priest and once he learned the songs he’d be brilliant.”

After 18 years at KROQ, Blade quit in 2000 and moved to the Caribbean to spend some quality time with his wife. He continued to do live DJ gigs at clubs, private wedding and parties and he even landed opening slots for live performances by bands such as Spandau Ballet and Echo and the Bunnymen. He can currently be heard daily on SiriusXM’s 1st Wave Ch. 33 and every weekday at noon for 93.1 Jack FM’s Flashback Lunch.

Blade is also releasing his autobiography, titled “World in My Eyes” after one of his favorite Depeche Mode songs, on Nov. 2. In the book he shares pictures and stories from his times with a variety of artists, but really, he said, it’s also about the three great loves in his life.

“The first being one at college, the second being Terri Nunn from Berlin and the third is my wife, now,” he said. “My wife was very forgiving with what I wrote because there was a lot of sex in it. She said ‘We’ve all got backgrounds.’ Then she started reading the book and added ‘But you’re a man whore.’ It was very cathartic and exciting to write, especially as I was writing about the early years when I was a disco DJ, traveling around the world. I always wanted to get into radio and thought once I got into radio that I’d get out of DJing live, but I never knew how much fun I’d end up having doing the live shows. Being able to do both, hand in hand, for so long now, has just been fantastic.”